The Franco-German aerospace group EADS is renaming itself Airbus, after its dominant commercial planes business that makes the A380 superjumbo.

The rebranded Airbus group will be split into three divisions, the company announced on Wednesday: commercial planes; defence and space; and military and civilian helicopters. It is the most significant corporate shakeup for the business since the German government blocked a €35bn (£30.6bn) merger between EADS and British defence group BAE Systems last year.

"The renaming simply gathers the entire company under the best brand we have, one that stands for internationalisation, innovation and integration – and also for some two-thirds of our revenues," said the chief executive, Tom Enders. "It reinforces the message that 'we make things fly'."

The change in branding underscores the importance of the commercial planes business and its rapidly growing order book. In the first six months of 2013, Airbus Commercial netted 722 orders for aircraft, up sharply on 230 for the same period last year.

At the Paris Air Show alone, Airbus took orders for 241 planes, including 65 orders for the A350 from Air France, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.

Airbus has been battling it out with Boeing for supremacy in the £66bn-a-year passenger jet market, after its US rival took the top spot last year in both orders and deliveries.

Revenues for the military arm of the Airbus business were also up, even though orders for military aircraft fell to eight aircraft from 21. Eurocopter, which makes civilian and military helicopters, reported a 7% fall in revenues as the company delivered fewer helicopters. But overall, the better-than-expected performance helped lift EADS's revenues for the first half of the year by 6% to €26.3bn (£22bn).

The re-organisation is due to be complete by the end of 2014 and Enders said it was the logical next step for the company. "We affirm the predominance of commercial aeronautics in our group and we restructure and focus our defence and space activities to take costs out, increase profitability and improve our market position."

The markets cheered the news with EADS shares rising 2.16% on the Paris stock exchange to €45.22.